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NBA Draft First-Round Diary

The Journal provides minute-by-minute analysis of the first round of tonight’s National Basketball Association Draft. Guest blogger Pete McEntegart offers commentary on the selections and the ESPN telecast.

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Blake Griffin (right) shakes hands with NBA Commissioner David Stern after being selected by the Los Angeles Clippers with the top pick in the NBA Draft.

10:30: Well if David Stern isn’t going to stick around anymore, then neither am I. Glad you could join us for the first round of the “Draft of the Point Guard.” I count an even dozen point guards among the first 30 picks. Who will turn out to be the best? Rubio? Evans? Curry? Flynn? Holiday? Lawson? None of the Above?

Check back in about 2012. We should definitely have an answer, anyway, before the NBA drafts someone born in the 21st century. Yikes!

10:23: The Cavs take…Shaq! Not really, but that’s what Cleveland fans will take away from today. It seems certain Shaq will have a much bigger impact on next year’s Cavs team than the actual pick, swingman Christian Eyenga of the Congo. It sounds like Eyenga will be one of those guys who stays in Europe for a few more years, if indeed he ever does make it to the NBA. At least that won’t cost the Cavs any money.

10:20: The Lakers take Florida State combo guard Toney Douglas, but every indication is that L.A. took Douglas for the Knicks. The Knicks also traded Quentin Richardson for Darko Milicic, who so far hasn’t lived down the fact he was taken ahead of Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade a while back. It would be a stretch to say the Knicks fans on hand were overjoyed at the Milicic mention. However, my buddy Luke Winn of Sports Illustrated thinks Douglas is a real sleeper in this draft.

One pick left in the first round with the Cavs on the clock.

10:12: The other half of the Episcopal (Pa.) Academy backcourt, Wayne Ellington, has gone to the Timberwolves at No. 28. (Ellington and Duke’s Gerald Henderson played together in high school as we mentioned earlier.) Ellington also played for three years with Minnesota’s previous draft pick tonight, Ty Lawson, but all signs point to Lawson moving on to Denver.

10:06: DeMarre Carroll of Missouri is now a member of the Memphis Grizzlies. I like to think that DeMarre’s mom was frenemies with the mother of DeMar DeRozan, and was thus determined to out-do the other on his first name. Think about it; “DeMarre” matches “DeMar” right down to the extra capital letter, and then throws in an additional “re” to finish the job. Then again, I might simply be punch-drunk at this point. Three more picks to go in the first round.

10:00: The Bulls take the second USC Trojan of the night, and somehow it’s not Lil Romeo. Instead it’s forward Taj Gibson. Come on, I bet the guy can’t even rap.

9:55: It’s Beaubois Time! That’s right, our old friend Rodrigue Beaubois, the point guard from France via Guadeloupe, is now a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Whoops, not so fast. ESPN’s Bucher says the Mavs and Thunder will swap Beaubois and B.J. Mullens. See, I just said all that snarky stuff about Dallas picking Mullens, when they actually took our boy Beaubois. Mark Cuban, please accept my apologies. And stop emailing me at all hours of the night.

9:51: The Mavericks have addressed their shortage of giant stiffs by adding B.J. Mullens from Ohio State. OK, that’s mean. At 7-foot-1 and a skilled 258 pounds, Mullens certainly looks the part of a legitimate NBA center, which isn’t easy to find. Then again, he only started two games as a freshman at Ohio State, so he’s years away from being a real contributor.

9:46: The Kings do their part to address the dearth of foreign selections as they go with Israel’s Omri Casspi at No. 23. The pick is a hit in New York, where a group of fans are waving Israeli flags. Israel has produced NBA draft picks before, but nobody that’s actually played in the league. Will the 6-foot-9 Casspi be the first? Who am I, Carnac the Magnificent?

9:43: Spain’s Victor Claver lands with the Trail Blazers, though it sounds like the 6-foot-9 slasher won’t make it stateside for a few years. That’s often fine with NBA teams since the player can get more seasoning in Europe in the interim–on someone else’s dime and salary cap. So far the first round has been very light on foreign players, but at least Spain is holding up its end of the bargain.

9:34: The Hornets do make it five PGs in a row, but rather than Beaubois it’s UCLA’s actual starter at the position last year, Collison. That’ll give New Orleans another speed merchant running the show when Chris Paul needs a break.

9:30: Let’s make it four point guards in a row as the Jazz go with Virginia Commonwealth’s Eric Maynor. Can the Hornets make it five with Rodrigue Beaubois? And yes, I just wanted to type “Rodrigue Beaubois.”

9:25: The Hawks go with PG Jeff Teague from Wake Forest. Unfortunately Atlanta has also traded for Jamal Crawford today, so history teaches us the Hawks are now guaranteed to miss the playoffs. (Crawford has never reached the postseason, and not for a lack of hoisting up ill-advised jump shots trying to get there. Hmm, maybe that ill-advised part has something to do with it.)

9:19: OK, this is ridiculous. The T-Wolves take their third point guard of the night in Ty Lawson of UNC. Are they employing the new triple-point offense with Lawson, Rubio and Jonny Flynn? You have to figure someone will be traded. OK, Ric Bucher of ESPN now says that Lawson will be shipped to the Nuggets. That makes more sense. So maybe senility hasn’t set in quite yet, no matter what decade Rubio was born in.

9:16: Jrue Holiday has escaped the green room. The 76ers hope that the UCLA freshman will be their point guard of the future. Holiday didn’t really do much of that last year with Darren Collison handling those duties, but his defensive skills are already apparent. Most felt Holiday would go before Jennings, which is why Holiday was in the green room and Jennings bailed before the draft started.

9:09: At No. 15, the Bulls go with forward James Johnson of Wake Forest. I’d ordinarily provide some cogent analysis but I’m too depressed after ESPN just flashed this nugget: Ricky Rubio is the first NBA draft pick born in the ’90s. So guys *born in the ’90s* are now playing in the NBA? Where’d the last 30-odd years go? What’s my name again?

9:02: Austin Daye of Gonzaga goes to the Pistons at No. 15. He’s a 6-foot-11 shooter but a beanpole at 190 pounds. Maybe that’s why he’s wearing a sweater over his shirt and tie and under his suit jacket–to add a little perceived bulk. Nice try, but he still looks pretty skinny. Let’s hope he didn’t make the rookie move of going for the sweater vest rather than the guns-inflating sleeves.

8:57: The Suns take big man Earl Clark from Louisville at No. 14, making the Cardinals the first college team with two first-rounders. Yet in an odd move, commissioner David Stern introduces Brandon Jennings instead. Clark isn’t in the building, Stern said, but Jennings has apparently just arrived at Madison Square Garden. He was originally going to be in the green room from the start, but when teams couldn’t guarantee that he’d go in the lottery, he stayed away so as not to be the poor sap sitting there twiddling his thumbs when he isn’t getting picked. Smart move.

8:51: The Pacers follow up a Dukie with a Tar Heel, but not Ellington. Instead it’s former national Player of the Year Tyler Hansbrough, who quickly inspires a chant of “Ov-er-ra-ted!” in New York. Wow, one wouldn’t have thought there’d be much of an anti-Hansbrough sentiment in the Big Apple. This guy’s been considered overrated so long, though, that maybe he’s underrated now.

8:45: The Bobcats stay in-state with Duke guard Gerald Henderson at No. 12. Let’s see if Henderson’s backcourt partner at Episcopal Academy outside Philadelphia, UNC’s Wayne Ellington, becomes a first-round pick tonight as well. Ellington was actually considered the bigger-time prospect coming out of high school, but the athletic Henderson improved more as a collegian.

8:41: The Nets take Terrence Williams from Louisville, then trade him seconds later because he’s making too much money. Just kidding. In the NBA world, rookies are actually cheap workers during their initial contract. And that’s crucial for the Nets, where Vince Carter has apparently joined Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson and Kenyon Martin in pricing himself out of New Jersey.

Williams, a versatile defender and point forward, is also the first college senior taken tonight.

8:33: Brandon Jennings makes his European experiment pay off, at least for tonight, as he goes to the Bucks at No. 10. The point guard from Compton, Calif., decided to skip college and play professionally in Europe this past season to improve his pro prospects. (And make a quick $1.2 million.) Jennings didn’t actually get on the court much in Italy, but that doesn’t seem to have hurt his draft status. There was talk today that his stock was slipping out of the lottery, but he made it after all. Time will tell if that launches a serious trend of high school stars ditching college for Europe.

8:28: Lil Romeo’s best buddy is off the board. The Raptors take USC freshman swingman DeMar DeRozan at No. 9. Master P’s son, Romeo Miller (aka Lil Romeo) “earned” a scholarship with the Trojans because he’s chums with DeRozan. In fact, Master P apparently called former USC coach Tim Floyd and explicitly offered Lil Romeo and DeRozan as a package deal, and Floyd said sure. Gee, it’s a wonder Floyd got in trouble with the NCAA.

8:22: The Knicks go with Arizona forward Jordan Hill at No. 8, a decision met with more boos than cheers by the locals. It’s safe to say he’s not the final piece in New York’s championship puzzle. But will Hill be LeBron’s Knicks teammate in 2010-11? Stay tuned!

8:15: The boo-birds are out in New York as the Warriors take Curry, whom the Knicks (and their fans) coveted. Is Don Nelson still upset about his abbreviated tenure as Knicks head coach, when he didn’t even last a full season back in ’95-’96? Then again, maybe Nellie and Golden State just wanted the most lights-out pure shooter in the draft.

8:12: The T-Wolves double-down on point guards with Syracuse’s Jonny Flynn at No. 6. An interesting, and perhaps odd, selection. Are they hedging their bets, hoping that at least one of them comes through? Or do they genuinely believe their games are complementary? Of course, the Knicks fans attending the draft love the pick because it means Davidson’s Stephen Curry only needs to get past the Warriors at No. 7 now to slip to the Knicks at No. 8.

8:04: The T-Wolves make it official and take Rubio, the skinny ballhandling phenom who has drawn comparisons to Pistol Pete Maravich for his fancy dribbling and passing. Unlike Pistol Pete, though, the 18-year-old Rubio isn’t much of a scorer, at least not yet. But one thing he does have is a $6.6 million buyout due to his European club team.

8:01: The Timberwolves are on the clock–twice. Minnesota has both the No. 5 and No. 6 picks, as well as two more first-rounders and a pair of second-rounders. (For now, anyway.) Lots of folks felt the T-Wolves are hot for Rubio, and were perhaps marshaling resources to trade up to get him if necessary. Well, the Spanish star is there if they want him.

7:57: The Kings go with Memphis freshman Tyreke Evans, the first of the point guards off the board. Sacramento would be very happy to land another Derrick Rose, the freshman PG from Memphis who went first to the Bulls last season.

7:56: Another surprise: Harden is rocking both a bow tie and a three-piece suit. Kind of an Andre 3000 look. He’s pulling it off well.

7:52: Oklahoma City takes Arizona State shooting guard James Harden. First surprise of the night, and not just that it still seems weird to write “Oklahoma City Thunder.” Most folks were thinking one of the point guards here.

7:50: The Grizzlies take Hasheem Thabeet at No. 2. That ties Tanzania with the U.S. for most first-round picks produced so far. (The UConn big man is the first NBA player ever from the African nation.) There had been scuttlebutt that Thabeet, like Ricky Rubio, didn’t want to play for the skinflints in Memphis, which seemed to have merit when Thabeet canceled a workout for the Grizzlies. But Thabeet said today he is cool with the Grizzlies, that he canceled the workout to handle a visa issue. Now the question will be whether the shot-blocker can ever clear customs with a workable offensive game.

Thunder are on the clock.

7:45: I’ve only been an L.A. resident for 24 days, but even I wonder about Griffin’s decision to wear a purple shirt tonight. That’s one of the Lakers’ colors, of course, and this is a Lakers’ town. Griffin might have avoided the color purple if only to keep from sending a subliminal message to Clippers fans that they’re second-class citizens in their own town. Which, of course, they are, but the Clippers themselves shouldn’t be rubbing it in.

7:39: My mock draft is 1-for-1! The Clippers surprise nobody by taking University of Oklahoma strongman Blake Griffin. Let’s hope this works out a lot better for the Paper Clips than their last No. 1 overall selection, center Michael Olowokandi in ’98. It would be hard to do any worse than that, anyway.

The consensus on Griffin is that he might not be a potential superstar, or even a perennial All-Star, but he’s so tough and relentless that he should almost certainly have a very solid career. Very low risk. Which is easy to say, of course, when you’re not writing him a check for $50 million or so.

7:35: The Clippers are officially on the clock.

7:26: The final verdict on the wisdom of tonight’s picks, particularly the young point guards, won’t be returned for several years. That time frame, it seems, just won’t cut it for several championship contenders. The Cavs landed the biggest name (and biggest body) by acquiring Shaquille O’Neal from the Suns today in their latest effort to make LeBron James’ supporting cast title-ready–especially in LeBron’s last season before free agency. The team that defeated Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals, the Orlando Magic, have made their own move in the arms race by reportedly shaking Vince Carter free from New Jersey. That provides serious insurance in case the Magic can’t re-sign Hedo Turkoglu. Out West, the Spurs also added a weapon in Richard Jefferson earlier this week from the Bucks.

Of course, those teams wouldn’t have expected to get much immediate help from this or any other draft considering they’d likely be picking at the end of the first round. Rather, tonight is mostly for the lottery teams hoping they’ve finally taken the player with the chance to be special enough so they too can worry about trading for that elusive final piece for a championship. Winning this lottery means not having to play again. We’re about five minutes from handing out this year’s tickets.

1:40 p.m. ET: The 2009 NBA Draft should prove once and for all that short people do indeed have a reason to live–and the (occasional) right to a guaranteed first-round contract. In fact, there wouldn’t be much cause to hold this year’s lottery if not for the little guys who play point guard. Of course, we mean “short” by the outsized standards of the NBA. Even the smallest–Syracuse’s Jonny Flynn, Wake Forest’s Jeff Teague and North Carolina’s Ty Lawson are all listed no taller than 6-foot-2, which is roughly four inches taller than the average American male.

But that is downright tiny by league standards, one reason that this draft isn’t considered especially strong. In fact, all-but-certain No. 1 pick Blake Griffin, UConn giant Hasheem Thabeet and Arizona forward Jordan Hill are the only big men considered locks for the lottery (the first 14 selections). If you’re looking for a quarterback on the floor, however, this could be your year. Still, it’s buyer beware since the most highly touted PG prospects–including Spanish phenom Ricky Rubio, Memphis freshman Tyreke Evans, UCLA frosh Jrue Holiday and the sophomores Flynn and Teague–generally have shortish track records and thus carry plenty of risk with their potential reward.

Nobody figures to be rolling the dice more often than the Timberwolves, who enter tonight with four first-round picks, including Nos. 5 and 6. Will they package one or more of those selections to move up, perhaps to the Grizzlies’ slot at No. 2? New team president David Kahn isn’t saying, and even if he was saying, it would probably just be a smokescreen in grand NBA Draft tradition. We’ll all know one way or another in a few hours. Hope you’ll be following along with us.

Comments (5 of 5)

Holy cow! This guy McEntegart is a genius on the blog. I wonder if anyone ever thought of maybe giving him a daily thing where he posts once or twice a day where he could have some fun with the current events in sports? You never know, it might take off.

Good job on this Pete.

8:47 pm June 25, 2009

me again wrote:

Pete, are you any relation to the well known writer Jane McEntegart ?

8:40 pm June 25, 2009

THE Rock Chalk wrote:

OK, when did Kenny Banya start goin' by the name of 'Fin' ??

Hello to the Finsterbaby !!

8:39 pm June 25, 2009

THE Rock Chalk wrote:

Howdy Pete! Your in LA now? Awesome... bet it was a tad of a culture shock from New York.

Blake Griffin went FIRST ?? Can't be !! I think he'll be a monster his rookie year.

8:18 pm June 25, 2009

Fin wrote:

Who is this guy McEntegart? Whoever decided to bring him in is a genius - this diary is gold, I tell you, GOLD! Tersely cogent, I'd say.

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